by Jane Grivjack
Introduction:
This morning, we conclude our studies through John chapters 13-17 and our sweet time at the Feet of Jesus. Today we will be focusing on Jesus’ parting prayer before entering the lonely road leading to Calvary. As we have seen in the previous chapters, Jesus had much wisdom, instruction and warning that He needed to impart to His disciples before He would leave them. Were you able to sense the urgency in His communication? He had so much more to say to them than what is recorded here but He knew that they could not bear it at that time so He had to leave it up to the Holy Spirit to enlighten them afterward (Jn 16:12-15).
The disciples were born into a unique and critical time in human history…the period of Jesus’ first advent. They had witnessed firsthand all that had been prophesied about the Messiah’s coming and would soon see in graphic detail the trial, execution and burial of their beloved teacher and friend. As we have studied these chapters, we have been reminded that Jesus went into great detail to prepare them for what they would experience in the very near future. I believe there are some striking similarities that we need to take note of before getting into this chapter. We, like the disciples have been born into an equally critical time in human history…the period of Jesus second advent. These are exciting and perilous times!! His exhortation to us is the same as it was to His disciples, remember that I told you beforehand what to expect so let not your hearts be troubled!
Back to our text. Let’s review what we’ve learned so far about what Jesus did to prepare His disciples:
Jesus gave them an example of servanthood by washing their feet
Jesus reached out one final time to His betrayer
Jesus instituted a new commandment--to love one another
Jesus warned that all would forsake Him
Jesus comforted by promising to come again for them after He prepared a place for them
Jesus encouraged them to ask anything of the Father in His name
Jesus taught them that proof of love for Him is shown by obedience
Jesus instructed them on the role of the Holy Spirit
Jesus illustrated the principle of abiding in Him through the parable of the Vine
Jesus warned that the world would hate them as it hated Him
Jesus gave examples of the persecution they should expect
Jesus prepared them for His impending death and resurrection
Jesus comforted them by reminding them that He had overcome the world
Can you imagine the difficulty that the disciples had in taking all the information in and processing it? Thank the Lord for the Holy Spirit, He was sent to bring everything that Jesus had to their remembrance and to instruct and comfort them as they would go on without Him!! It is only fitting that Jesus would end His time with prayer. It can almost be seen as a benediction or invocation at the end of this crucial time of instruction throughout the 3 ½ years of His time on earth.
This chapter is beautifully divided into three parts: Jesus prayer for Himself; His disciples and those who would come after them.
**For the sake of time we will not be reading all the verses in this chapter. I will summarize some and then focus on those that stood out to me.
John 17:1-5 Jesus’ prayer for Himself(Read verses 1-5)
**Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven…
He focused His gaze heavenward…to the throne of God. This was His posture-one of complete dependence on God.
Ps 121:1-2
I will lift up my eyes to the hills —
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
Oh, how it pleases the Father for His children to come to Him in time of need. I’m reminded of how much in displeased God when the Israelite kings trusted in themselves or other armies to fight their battles.
Isa 30:1"Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD,
"Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
That they may add sin to sin;
King Asa was severely chided by the Lord for refusing to cry out for His help and looking elsewhere.
2 Chron 16:9 (The prophet spoke) For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars."
There are consequences that are a result of relying on ourselves rather than the Lord!
I don’t want the Lord to say to me, “You have done foolishly; therefore….”
**And said, “Father, the hour has come.”
The time had finally come…the time spoken of all the way back at the beginning of creation in the garden. The plan that was carefully and meticulously crafted before time began was finally going to be initiated. Jesus would crush the serpent’s head while bruising His heal (Gen 3:15) Jesus knew it…the Father knew it; what anticipation must have been felt by Them as the time drew near!
Spurgeon- (It was) the most single and remarkable hour, and without doubt, the most critical that ever was since the clock of time was set going…after many a skirmish the decisive battle between Heaven and Hell is now to be fought and the great cause in which God’s honor and man’s happiness are together embarked must now be won or lost forever.
The plan must be implemented to defeat death and Hell. Jesus would resolutely take the road to Calvary, letting nothing stand in His way!
Isa 50:6-7 I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
7 "For the Lord GOD will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint ,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
Jesus knew what lie ahead, but this would not dissuade Him from proceeding with the plan laid out by the Father that would bring salvation to the lost world!
**Glorify Your Son that Your Son may glorify You.
R.A. Torrey- Our Lord’s burden was for the glory of God.
This was Jesus’ motivation…to bring honor the Father. Nothing that He ever did or said on earth was meant to bring glory to Himself…any glory that He received was a reflection of the glory He gave to the Father coming back on Him. This was His greatest joy.
**Jesus had finished the work God had given him to do on earth (vs 4)
He did this by teaching the multitudes, preaching the gospel and healing all kinds of sickness (Matt 4:23) along with raising the dead and doing battle with the kingdom of darkness. He considered these acts to be the means to bring glory to the Father and show the world that He and the Father were one (John 5:19-20).
His greatest display of glory would be through suffering!! Through His obedience in keeping to the plan to reconcile sinful man to the Father, He was given authority to bestow the gift of eternal life to all that the Father had given to Him (that’s us)!
Scripture says that no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him (Jn 6:44). We are God’s gift to Christ! God the Father, through the work of the Holy Spirit drew us to our Savior. Jesus alone has the authority to cleanse us from our sin and give us eternal life.
Jesus makes a profound statement in the middle of this portion of the prayer that really stuck out to me: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (vs 3)
What Jesus is communicating here is important…that eternal life is not just punching a ticket for Heaven and keeping it in your back pocket. It is encompassed in knowing God personally, intimately throughout our time here on earth. Jesus’ sacrifice brought about our reconciliation with the Father. Reconciliation naturally leads to relationship.
Jer 9:23-24 Thus says the LORD:
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight," says the LORD.
According to Strongs-To know Him means we are to be aware of Him, consider Him, discover Him, become acquainted with Him, to draw near to Him…In other words, that we acknowledge Him in everything we say and do and in doing this, we will honor Him.
The prophet Hosea instructed the nation of Israel that the evidence of genuine repentance was a desire to acknowledge God by a transformed life.
Hos 6:3 (NIV)
3 Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
1 Cor 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
John 17:6-19 Jesus’ prayer for His disciples
Verses 6-10 Jesus states that He revealed God’s name (nature) to them (John 14:9). He had given them the Father’s words and they had received them and kept them (proof that they knew Him), and He was glorified in them.
Verse11-12 Jesus looks forward to His departure and is mindful that He will no longer be with them physically to “keep” them from the evil one. (Read verses 11-12)
Warren Wiersbe- Christ asked the Father to keep the disciples (v. 11). This request does not suggest the possibility that the disciples could lose their salvation. Note the full request: " . . . keep [them] through Your own name ... that they may be one" (NKJV). Verse 15 asks that they be kept from the evil one. Christ was physically with the disciples and was able to keep them together, united in heart and purpose, separated from the world . Now that He was going back to heaven, He asked the Father to keep them.
This is evidenced in His preceding statement; God had given them to Him and now He was giving them back to Him for safe keeping.
As to the question of Judas, Warren Wiersbe gives the best explanation:
Some use v. 12 as "proof' that a believer can lose his or her salvation, but a careful reading of the verse proves just the opposite! Jesus said, "None of them is lost but the son of perdition." This shows that Judas was never a part of the believing band of disciples. "But" is a word of contrast, showing that Judas was in a different class from the others. In v. 11 Jesus plainly stated that He kept all whom the Father gave Him; since Judas was lost, he could not have been among those who were given to the Son. Many people today who teach that Judas "lost his salvation" make the same mistake Peter made (6:66-71) in thinking that Judas had salvation, when he did not!
Peter’s answer to Jesus question about going away (we have come to believe and know that You are The Christ) included Judas.
John 10:27-28 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. 30 I and My Father are one."
NKJV
Verses 13-19 Jesus, in looking forward to returning to the Father, takes comfort in knowing that all He had spoken to them would be the source of supernatural joy that the world could not take away from them. (Adrienne touched on this in her study last week when she taught about the Holy Spirit’s role in making everything make sense after they were born again!) Jesus now tells the Father what He had told the disciples back in chapter 15; that the world would hate them because they were not of this world.
(Read verses 15-19)
1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
Jesus does not ask that His disciples be taken from the world, they had a job to do. If we understand that we, as believers in Christ have been separated from the world, while still in the world, it naturally follows that the way in which God will keep us is by sanctifying us.
Sanctify can be interpreted in two ways (Barnes)-to render pure or to cleanse from sins; to be set apart for His holy purposes
Barnes Notes - When Jesus prayed here that God would sanctify them, he probably included both these ideas, that they might be made personally more holy, and might be truly consecrated to God as the ministers of his religion. Ministers of the gospel will be really devoted to the service of God just in proportion as they are personally pure .
Gal 1:15-16 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles,
**Jesus clearly states here that it is the word of God that does the work of sanctifying us . (verse 17)
Ps 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
James goes on to say that we must not just be hearers, but doers…in other words, we must put into practice all that we hear.
James 1:22-25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
John 17:20-26 Jesus prays for who would believe in Him through the disciples
The disciples were the recipients of the testimony of Jesus, and it was up to them to testify to the world that Jesus was sent by the Father to give the gift to eternal life to all who would believe their report.
John recognized his calling.
John 21:24-25 This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. 25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.
**Jesus prayer for us is that we would be one with Him as He was one with the Father .
(Read verses 20-23)
Jesus desire for us is that we be one with each other as He was with the Father. Earlier in this study, I read a quote from Warren Wiersbe that described how Jesus kept His disciples while here on earth: Christ was physically with the disciples and was able to keep them together, united in heart and purpose, separated from the world . This description gave me a picture of a bubble or pod that encompassed the disciples and kept them safe from all the outside forces coming against them. They had been transferred out of the world and now were in Jesus’ sphere, held together by His very presence. The same is true today. We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light, then we also have been placed in that “bubble” and we know that to be the Church!
And what we see in Jesus’ prayer is that Unity/Oneness displayed in His church brings God glory. This is shown as we work in “loving cooperation for the good of the world.” (J.F.B.)
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown-Unity must be visible or perceptible to the world outside…because Christ’s reputation is at stake. (verse 23)
The world is looking at the Church, and in fact, is encouraged to observe the body of Christ as a representation of the glory of God. If the world sees disunity and in-fighting, what kind of a reflection on God does it display?
This section of scripture promoting oneness can often be misunderstood and misrepresented. Some use this text to show that denominations are evil.
Chuck Smith- I see the purpose of denominations; I have no problem with that. The only problem is when people get denominational; when they cannot see the whole church and the whole body of Christ, but they see their own little segment only and exclude the rest.
The Church is divided into many denominations, including Baptists, Pentecostals, Reformed, Evangelical, Orthodox and even non-denominational. The diversity in these church groups is typically rooted in differences of distinctives or preferences in teaching, worship and other non-critical areas. Most churches have a mission statement that is on their website that will list their particular distinctives, enabling those inquiring to decide if that church fits their individual priorities for worship. God understands that part of human nature is diversity and makes provision for it through differing denominations.
God loves diversity and makes provision for it in the church (Romans 12:3-8, 1Cor 12-13), it is disunity that grieves His heart. Proverbs 6:19 says that the Lord hates the one who sews discord among the brethren.
The problem is that we often become judgmental of other denominations because they don’t believe exactly the way we do. I must confess that I have dealt with this issue in my own life in the past.
Others will use these statements to argue for complete conformity/uniformity within their own church body. God did not call us to Himself to make us “cookie cutter” Christians!
Oswald Chambers- A spiritually minded man will never come to you with the demand- “Believe this or that,” but with the demand that you square your life with the standards of Jesus. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples , not make converts of your own opinions.”
So, we need to be careful that we don’t place requirements on others that have nothing to do with the requirements of Jesus. On many subjects, God gives us liberty and the freedom to be convinced in our own minds.
One last thought on the subject of unity: Beware of those who equate unity in the Body of Christ with Ecumenicalism!!
Frances Schaeffer- A movement that promotes worldwide unity among all religions through greater cooperation.
This is from the pit of Hell and is the tool Satan will use to bring in the one world religious system. Don’t water down God’s standards for the sake of unity with other religious groups. This is a trap and don’t fall for it for the sake of “so called” unity.
**Jesus prays that all God had given Him would be with Him where He was (going)
(Read verses 24-26)
Can you sense the anticipation in Jesus’ words here? He was looking past the cross to the reward…that we would have access to Heaven and see His glory!!
Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-4) and very soon He will return to gather us to Himself. We all can sense that the time is near, and it is not clear how much of the birth pangs Jesus warned us about we will have to endure. But we can take comfort and have joy because Jesus’ has given us all the information ahead of time, just like He did with the disciples before His death. He said (vs 13), “(T)hese things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” If Jesus words prepared the disciples to endure, His words will prepare us to do the same.
Rev 3:10-13 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. 12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. 13 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'